Artasia at St. Basil

Because St. Basil is our first site together every week, we learned a lot about what does and does not work in each activity. This helped ease a lot of nerves we felt in the beginning weeks of the program, especially since the kids were very engaged each time. They also welcomed us warmly on our very first visit, mitigating our feelings of unsureness. The first week’s activity, making badges, was a great introduction to the program for not only the children but for us. We were able to learn about everyone’s personalities through the badges and what materials they worked best with. It was interesting to see how they chose to represent themselves and how we might represent ourselves too. 

Additionally, we saw how the children related their own experiences to the examples we provided and expressed it in their artworks. For example, April’s example badge had a cat on it because of her personal love for cats. She talked about how she has a cat at home and what that means to her. Because of this, many of the children shared stories about their own pets at home and why they are important to them. Quinie’s example badge featured a bear that many children chose to recreate. Talking about our own personal experiences allowed the children to feel more comfortable sharing what it means to be themselves. As the weeks progressed, they took more initiative, even asking to make badges again with our leftover materials.

Similar to the badges, the children really enjoyed making the wearable art since this was something that they could immediately wear and show off. The children had really creative ideas with the minimal guidance and instructions that were given to them. One of the children decided to make a dress for his stuffed unicorn. While another little girl made a leash and collar out of pipe cleaners so she could walk her cat. Another girl even made a bag out of the mesh fabric and pipe cleaners that we provided.

After the children had finished making their wearable art, we ran a mini fashion show with them. Everyone was really eager to share what they made with their peers and it was nice seeing the proud smiles on their faces as they showed off their wearable art. The kids themselves were also very enthusiastic about seeing what their peers have made and were very supportive of everyone’s creations.

April Song, Quinie Cui